My single most successful part of the paint project was J’s ceiling fan. It was always a cute fan. Here it is nestled in the former pink splendor.
In the picture, each paddle is a different pastel shade with a metal flower, also in pastel. The fan also has pulls with cute little butterflies, and J had added two fairy ornaments. Ah, so sweet.
As of last month everything drove her crazy: the pastel, the pink, and the butterflies. The fairies had long since been relocated. Pulling off the butterflies was easy, and as it turned out, we were able to transform the whole fan pretty quickly.
Fortunately, the other side of each paddle is plain white, so switching that was as easy as unscrewing, dusting it off, and re-screwing them in. That still left the pastel flowers, and J has nothing against flowers, but she wanted something to go with her bold turquoise choice. So we kept the fan disassembled. . .
. . . and pulled out the paints. Since we’d had some trouble deciding on the exact shade of turquoise, J had options for the flowers. All one color, or several different shades? Matching the walls exactly, or a new shade altogether? She pondered her options.
She finally decided on a premium blend of her own devising. Then she set to work on the first flower. And pretty quickly got frustrated trying to keep the paint on just the petal part and not the stem. Plus she was just pretty much losing interest altogether. I took over while she practiced gymnastics. Then she took a call from M, who was requesting a long-sleeved shirt for Cute W when I went to meet the two of them at a soccer meeting. Except that J translated it as “Dad wants something to wear,” and then both Cute W and M were unreachable for further information or clarification, and meanwhile I realized that I was almost late for the meeting and I still had two petals to paint.
Never mind. The meeting was fine, Cute W managed to survive in the evening chill, and the next day, I put the fan back together. Part of me, it’s true, still mourns for the old fan, complete with flying fairies.
But J is thrilled.
